Messing about with empathy
Did you see the Dragon Crew launch on May 30? It was the first time in eleven years that American astronauts launched into space on American soil. However, the take-off and joining with the International Space Station (ISS) was only the first part of the mission. SpaceX can’t say their capsule worked perfectly until the…
Time is a funny thing. While completing my 300 miles in July, I listened to a lot of audiobooks. Several of them were about time, from a biological, psychological, and physics viewpoint. Time is still not well understood, but it is something that people think about, well, all the time. I was listening to a…
Whew! We made it to the last day of July. I successfully completed my hard task. What was it? I ran/walked 300 miles in July. I got up around 3:30 each morning and ran/walked 10 miles. Why did I do this? To earn a badge on Smashrun that I thought I would never achieve. On…
Welcome to Day 30 of my July Trivia posts.* Trivia: A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds. I won a goldfish at the school fair when I was a kid and named him Herman the German. He lived a long life for a goldfish. I fed him every day and never wondered whether…
Welcome to Day 29 of my July Trivia posts.* Trivia: February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon. THIS IS A LIE. However, it led me to the coolest term I’ve never heard of, so I might forgive whatever idiot made this up. Every nineteen years, February has…
Welcome to Day 28 of my July Trivia posts.* Trivia: An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain. This is true, but deceiving. It makes it sound like the ostrich has a really small brain. However, an ostrich eye is the size of a billiard ball, because they need to see at a great distance,…
Welcome to Day 27 of my July Trivia posts.* Trivia: There are only four words in the English language which end in “dous”: tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous. When creating trivia, it is never wise to use the word “only.” Someone will find a way to prove you wrong. If they had used the word…
Welcome to Day 26 of my July Trivia posts.* Trivia: No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or purple. When I was a kid and needed to rhyme something, I reached for my rhyming dictionary. Nowadays, I ask Google. (I still have the dictionary though, because you never know.) I entered…
Welcome to Day 25 of my July Trivia posts.* Trivia: It’s impossible to sneeze with your eyes open. I’ve heard this before and almost didn’t pick it from the list because I thought it was true. Surprise, it isn’t. You can sneeze with your eyes open, and no, your eyeballs won’t pop out of your…
Welcome to Day 24 of my July Trivia posts.* Trivia: The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket. I had heard this story before and thought it was made up. It turns out that this is true. Imagine my surprise. Percy Spencer was…